Bring millets back to kitchen for healthy living: Millet Man of India

shimla: In the state known for growing off-season vegetables, cash crops and apples, there is a new call to bring the millets back to the kitchen .

Just ahead of 'International Year of Millets-2023' declared by the United Nations, Himachal Pradesh seems to have decided to take a lead.

At a workshop of more than 200 farmers on Monday, Internationally acclaimed food and nutrition expert from Mysore, Dr Khadar Vali delivered a special lecture on the role of millets in preventive health- Aahar Sey Arogya at a one-day workshop-cum-kisan mela at Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni in Solan. Popularly known as the 'Millet Man of India', Vali called upon the farmers, agriculture scientists to promote millets to save soil, water, environment and, above all, human health. "Let us bring the millets back to our kitchen, make them an essential part of our staple diet plan and say goodbye to the emerging health problems," he exhorted. Vali advocated against growing and eating wheat and rice and asked the farmers to start cultivating the 'forgotten food' millets again.

"The water required for rice and wheat crops in one year equates with water requirement of millets for 26-30 years. This single reason is good enough for scientists and farmers to have shifted to the cultivation of millets," he said.